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Randall Pearson is a fictional character from the Comedy-drama television series This Is Us, which airs on the NBC netowrk in the United States. The character was created by producer Dan Fogelman and is portrayed by actor Sterling K. Brown.

Casting and creation
In November 2015, it was announced that Sterling K. Brown had been cast in the role of Randall. Brown was best known for his regular role on Lifetime's Army Wives and his recurring roles on Supernatural and Person of Interest. Brown met directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa when he was working on their film Whiskey Tango Foxtrot in the spring of 2015. In the fall, as Brown wrapped production on the inaugural season of FX's critically acclaimed crime anthology American Crime Story, in which he portrayed prosecutor Christopher Darden, he was contacted by the duo to meet with producer-writer Dan Fogelman whom they'd collaborated with on the 2011 film Crazy, Stupid, Love. Brown took a meeting with Fogelman and then auditioned a few weeks later. He was actually studying lines for his audition as he filmed the final episodes of American Crime Story. The pilot was filmed in February 2016 just American Crime began airing. In an interview with Vulture.com, Fogelman discussed Brown's casting and revealed that while they had not yet considered any other actors for the role, Fogelman admitted he was hesitant about Brown despite the glowing recommendation from his colleagues. "I was worried Sterling wasn't a household name." Ironically, both are were affiliated with 20th Television Studios and before "I got out the 'K' in 'Sterling K. Brown,' [studio executives] were like, do it." And though he was advised by producer Brad Simpson not to rush into his next role, This Is Us made it easy. It was the parallels to his own life that led Brown to Randall. "I point to things within myself that help me into Randall."

At its core, Brown said that Randall's story "can't help but be about race and socioeconomics." Fogelman however has never publicly explained the reason for his decision "to make Randall a black child who grew up in a white family." While Brown has not discussed it with Fogelman either, Randall "doesn't seem accidentally black." Brown immediately started doing his own research upon discovering that Randall was the Pearsons adopted son. The actor reached out to a personal friend, an "African-American, who was adopted at birth by an all-white family" to get a sense of what "his socialization was like." Brown posed questions such as "Did they raise him as African-American? Did he feel connected to his culture/community? What did he have to do in order to gain access to that community?"

Personality
Randall is described as a "sharply dressed corporate" business and family man. Brown described Randall as being "devoid of his culture." Of his character, Brown said Randall "has a certain zeal and zest for the pursuit of perfection." In an interview with Vulture.com Brown described Randall as a "lovable dork" similar to Brown's real-life older brother Armand. The actor loved to play the "awkwardness" Randall displays when he is faced with "something new."

Portrayal and writing
Brown appreciated that the writers leave a lot of room for improvisation in the scripts. "And so every once in a while Randall will say something [passive-aggressive] about 'Hey it's just your friendly neighborhood black guy,' right? And it's me bringing myself to the role." Fortunately for Brown, a lot of that improv makes it to air. Randall was not created as "a character that is black just by coincidence. He is purposefully African-American, and his perspective on things in incredibly valuable." He continued, "I am so proud of NBC and Fogelman for putting this black family in the midst of the Pearson family and not having it be coincidental. Having our race be an asset to the show, rather than something that needs to be glossed over." There are "prejudices" Brown insisted, that Randall is very much aware of, despite being raised by his white parents. The actor relished in the idea of getting to play Randall's struggle with being "necessarily different" from his siblings. "I'm so happy to get a chance to illuminate that perspective on national television." The Pearsons often go out of their way to make sure Randall has access to people that look like him "in order to instill him with cultural values of African Americans." Randall's race is used by the writers "to explore things in a unique." While Randall has achieved socioeconomic success, he still has to face certain "individual" struggles, "even in addressing his own identity." As an adult, Randall questions things a lot. "Am I black enough? By virtue of being raised by these white folks, have I done enough to support the African-American community at large?" The Pearsons, at first reluctantly, enlists help from outside influences to make sure Randall is exposed to African-American culture starting with Yvette portrayed by Brown's real life Ryan Michelle Bathe.

William Hill
In the series premiere, Randall meets his biological father William for the first time. While he wants his children to know their grandfather, Brown said Randall's desire to forge a relationship with William goes deeper. "It's about knowing where you come from and how that informs who you are." "[The] idea of trying to reconnect with a father figure is something that resonates with me" he told Variety. Brown lost his father when he was 10, while Randall loses his biological father as an infant and hopes to reconnect with him in adulthood.

Beth Pearson
Like Randall, Brown is also married with two children.

Success and anger
While it might have seemed rare, being a successful black man on television was anything but ground breaking. Marc Bernadin of the Los Angeles Times described Randall as an "upwardly mobile black man" with a "black wife and black children and he wears a suit to work and has a corner office…" Bernadin argued that because of Randall's success in life, he was no different than the other successful black man to appear on television in the past such as Bill Cosby's iconic Doctor Cliff Huxtable (The Cosby Show), Blair Underwood's Jonathan Rollins (L.A. Law) and James Avery's Judge Philip Banks (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). Despite the similarities, what sets Randall apart from those men is that "Randall is angry." And even then, the "angry black man" was not something new to television either. However, the irritability of Sherman Hemsley's George Jefferson (All in the Family, The Jeffersons) and Laurence Fishburne's Earl Johnson (Black-ish) is played for comedy. Meanwhile, the other numerous portrayals of the stereotypical "angry black man" would show up in episodic television from time to time to be rescued by a show's hero. On the other hand, Troy in August Wilson's legendary stage play Fences, portrayed by Denzel Washington in the 2016 film remake is angry about being left behind by society. For Randall, it is a different kind of fury. He is "foundationally angry […] at the hundreds of micro-aggressions a successful black man navigating a predominantly white world has to absorb on a daily basis." Bernadin continued, "Randall is a time bomb who regularly resets himself by swallowing his rage." The fact that Randall is a able to keep it together, as much as he does, for as long as he does is a "miracle of the everyday variety."

Trans-racial adoption

 * Diff'rent Strokes
 * Webster
 * The Fosters
 * The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game/The Blind Side
 * Jessie

In the series, as a child, Randall is teased and mocked for being a black child adopted into a white family. His classmates jokingly refer to him as "Webster." The name is a reference to the 1980s sitcom starring Emmanuel Lewis as an orphaned little boy who is adopted by a white couple.

Critical response
The character has received overwhelmingly positive reactions in the press while Sterling K. Brown has been praised for his portrayal of Randall. An early review of the pilot from the Sioux City Journal praised Brown "balancing comedy and drama" so well. The Daily Beast listed Brown as one of the "16 Biggest Breakout Stars of 2016" for his work that year which included This Is Us. The character of Randall and Brown were hailed, respectively, by the press as the "breakout" role and star of the series. Sarah Goldstein considered Randall to be the show's anchor. Chuck Barney of The Mercury News described the Randall and William plot as the "most poignant" storyline of season 1. The TVLine podcast described Brown as the series' "MVP." Entertainment Weekly's Jeff Jensen praised Brown's performance and said he "navigates his scenes with such intelligence, authenticity, and charisma." Billy Niles said Brown "slowly breaks our hearts each week." Marc Bernadin of the Los Angeles Times said with Randall as the vehicle, the series "captures the simmering rage of a successful black man in white America." Dan Snierson said haled Brown as "the man who came, who saw, and who conquered" his portrayal of Randall's struggle to keep up with his job, his dying father and raising his family. Joshua Rivera of GQ said his portrayal of Randall along with the rest of Brown's work during the 2016–17 season made way for Brown to "quietly" become "America's favorite actor" of the moment. Maria Elena Fernandez said his portrayal of Randall "has solidified Brown as one of the most subtle actors on television."

TVLine lauded Brown as the Performer of the Week for his portrayal of Randall's breakdown in the episode "Jack Pearson's Son." While the writing telegraphed Randall's impending breakdown, "that preparation did nothing to blunt the despair Brown conveyed as he continued his character's slow spiral into despair […] Brown artfully expressed his alter ego’s anxiety with small gestures […] Goodness gracious, is there anything this man can't play?"

Awards and nominations
Brown's portrayal of Randall has garnered several awards and nominations. In 2017 he won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series. Lonnie Chavis was also nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Performance by a Youth for his portrayal of Young Randall. Brown was also nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and a Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actor in a Drama. The karate scene from the episode "The Trip" won the Tearjerker award at the MTV Movie & TV Awards. The actor was also nominated by the Television Critics Association for the Award for Individual Achievement in Drama. Brown was also nominated and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Randall.

Impact
Brown told of a fan encounter in which a Black man thanked him for saving his "brother's life." Randall touches viewers in a way that Brown himself could not anticipate. GQ said "While O.J. earned Brown prestige cred, This Is Us is the reason that people come up to him, spontaneously crying, when he's out buying eggs." According to Kevin Fallon, not only does Brown maintain his momentum from American Crime Story with This Is Us, he "turns [Randall] into a provocative conversation piece about race, adoption, parenthood, forgiveness and self-worth."

Brown's 2017 Emmy win marked the first in a decade for an actor in a broadcast television series, after James Spader's 2007 victory for Boston Legal and the first in 19 years for an African-American actor, after Andre Braugher's 1998 win for Homicide: Life on the Street. The win would also Brown the fourth Black winner overall, after Bill Cosby, James Earl Jones and Braugher.